THE FABULOUS SET DESIGN ON MOVIE, CRAZY RICH ASIANS!
Eight Fun-Facts
From Behind-The-Scenes
and On the Set of Movie,
Crazy Rich Asians
Last week I attended a fantastic event in the Arthur Satz Auditorium at the New York School of Interior Design where author and journalist Cathy Whitlock (Designs on Film: A Century of Hollywood Art Direction) moderated an informative panel with set designers Ellen Christiansen (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Sheila Bock (Madam Secretary), and Andrew Baseman (Crazy Rich Asians). We heard first-hand about behind-the-scenes experiences on the set of their highly acclaimed productions. They also shared with us their design secrets about working in the film industry.
Today, we share some of those stories from the visually rich movie, Crazy Rich Asians. The movie was adapted by the bestselling novel written by Kevin Kwan. Set designer Andrew Basemen told us fun stories and details of how the elaborate sets were created and scouted, and stories of the set which were shot on location in Singapore. It's one of the most magical weddings I've seen in a movie with creatively orchestrated wedding with flowers, water, greenery, lights and gorgeous costume design. It was an ethereal scene culminating with the bride walking to the altar through the water. Check out some more interesting stories from the set of the movie...
1. In the original movie's script, the taxidermy tiger was a key figure in the home, and the magical place where the teens met to hide their cigarettes in the paws. The team had the taxidermy tiger created, yet while in customs it was temporarily lost and was found just in the nick of time for filming.
2. This dining room was shot in a beautiful home overlooking Singapore, and this is only one of the rooms depicting the beautiful high-style home of the protagonist's sister. 
1. In the original movie's script, the taxidermy tiger was a key figure in the home, and the magical place where the teens met to hide their cigarettes in the paws. The team had the taxidermy tiger created, yet while in customs it was temporarily lost and was found just in the nick of time for filming.
2. This dining room was shot in a beautiful home overlooking Singapore, and this is only one of the rooms depicting the beautiful high-style home of the protagonist's sister. 
3. the team scoured long and hard for a plethora of gold, and much time was spent to create these over-the-top fountains for this scene.
4. The wedding scene was problematic since the team was required to break down and put back together the elaborate wedding room decor every day after shooting since the space was needed for other events.
5. Set designer Andrew Baseman holds a special passion for porcelain and even writes his own blog about his world-renowned collection of antiques (also known as "make do's"), The Art of Inventive Repair. This solarium was particularly detailed using many valuable real-life antiques.
6. The team scouted a great deal of furniture in their travels on location in Singapore, and found Victorian-era pieces the most popular and plentiful. These were helpful to give some of the sets an elaborate and decadent design aesthetic.
7. The grand staircase in the movie was completely recreated in record time with a new custom rug stair runner created and installed just hours before the first shoot.
Stop back later this week for behind-the-scenes ideas from the television series, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and from set designer Ellen Christiansen's points of view.
Happy Nesting
XO Tamara
